Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the detection of water by electronic means, and more particularly to an electronic probe for detection of occult water or oil in bilges or storage tanks.
In the marine and petroleum industries, the detection of water is often necessary to preserve equipment, fuel, and even human lives.
As an example, in the marine industry, unwanted water in bilges of ships and other vessels can amount to a lethal hazard if left undetected. History is full of well known instances where rising water in the bilge of a vessel, when undiscovered, has had fatal results and many lives have been lost. In the petroleum and aircraft industries, occult water inside of storage tanks has also had fatal consequences for aircraft and other vehicles where clean fuel is imperative.
Prior art devices used in the same context are prone to failure due to a constant off/on cycling as water levels fluctuate with the motion of the vessel, causing the activation float/switch to move with each water movement. This failure is common and potentially lethal. The prior art devices are also prone to running dry once they have pumped all of the available water from the bilge. They also, while pumping all of the water, pump all of the oil and other contaminants into the surrounding water.
As one example, a tank field as is usually found at airports, oil refineries, military installations, etc. can cover a vast area with storage tanks in vast numbers. Due to the nature of fuel tanks, in particular, jet fuel tanks where the tank has a floating "lid" designed to prevent the formation of dangerous fumes, rain water tends to leak past the edge seals of the "lids" and into the fuel. In the event that such water finds its way into the fuel tanks of an aircraft, the results are predictably bad. Current technology uses a variety of physical "sounding" methods which employ long wooden rods with a water sensitive coating affixed to one end which is then lowered into the fuel tank where the presence of water can be seen by color change in the coating. This method of detection is physically demanding and inefficient in terms of time and potential for human error. Furthermore, by nature, the fuel tanks often do not have bottoms which are perfectly level, giving rise to the possibility that water could be present but remain undetected by reason of the "sounding" being taken in the wrong place.
Use of the instant invention makes possible completely accurate monitoring of even vast tank fields in real time through the use of existing computer networking and satellite uplinks and other existing communications systems.